Chapters All hail the queen-Sudden changes
After running out of the hall from the disappointed stares and angry glares, she fled to her old room, and sat down on her bed.
As twilight sat down and cried her eyes out,she wondered why her friends took the imposters side. " They only knew her for a day, and she isn't even the real Cadance. I thought that after all we had been through they would think better of me. "
She suddenly heard a chuckle, and a voice that sounded like it was eating gravel saying, " Well, they must not be very good friends, are they?"
Lighting up horn, Twilight turned around and spat " Who's there!?"
The voice started to laugh, and a huge white worm crawled out of the ground. It had Snow White skin, blank blue eyes, and was almost the size of a pony. When it spoke, four flaps of skin opened like a compass. "Who I am is not important. The question is, what are you feeling?"
Twilight gave a confused glance and said " Betrayed." With tears in her eyes, she told the worm of her tale. As she went on, it would give a sympathetic nod of its head here and there.
When she finished her story, it gave a slow shake of its head, and said " Well, that is a very sad story. In fact, it makes me want to help. No one should be betrayed by one they would call family."
Twilight looked at the worm and said " Um, no offense, but how are you going to help? Your just a worm, and I don't think worms can do much. Just dig, and spit out what they eat."
It chuckled and said " Trust me. I'll give you the power to save your loved ones, and make it to where they won't be able to ignore you anymore. All I need you to do is close your eyes."
Twilight laid back on the bed and closed her eyes. " Ok, but no funny business, alright?"
The worm chuckled and said " Don't worry. You'll will have enough power to save your friends." She felt it slither up to her chest, and say "Now, this may sting a little."
She felt an indescribable amount of pain as a host of sharp teeth ripped out a part of her chest. Her eyes shot open to see a huge hole with blood pouring out of it, like a waterfall.
" Why?" The worm looked her in her eyes, and said in a scolding tone" Just give me a minute. Sure, you'll be dead for a couple of hours, but you'll come back stronger. Just let me do my thing."
Twilight tried to use her hooves to pull the worm out, but she lacked the strength to lift them. As her vision faded in and out, she felt some wet squishy orbs being placed in her chest. The worm crawled up to her face and said " Sweet dreams." Then, everything faded to black.
Twilight woke up, gasping for breath. As she shook her head, she called out " Spike,girls, I just had the weirdest dream. My brother was getting to a fake Cadance and when I said she was a fake, none of you believed me. Then, this weird worm said he could help me, and then he dug into my chest, and put something in the hole."
" Well, that sounds like a crazy dream." A familiar worm, with its gravel eating eating voice, crawled back into view. " Good thing this is real life huh?"
Twilight jumped off the bed and lit up her horn, ready to disintegrate the beast."What did you do!"
The worm shook its head and said " I did what I said I would do. Take a look in the mirror." Twilight gave a untrusting look at the worm. With an exasperated sigh, it said like one would speak with a child " If you don't trust me don't look. But If you don't look, you won't see your new appearance. It's quite different, your majesty."
Confused, Twilight walked over to the mirror, and saw a stranger in the mirror. She still had her horn, but now she had a set of dark purple, almost black wings, resting on her back. Her mane and tail was a dark purple mixed with pure white flecks, like stars.She opened her mouth to gasp, and saw that she had razor sharp teeth, like nightmare moon's.
' No, I am nothing like nightmare moon. Also, Wings! I have wings, and my fur changed, and my horn is longer. Almost as long as Princess Celestia's, the traitor.
Stopping for a second, she thought ' Wait, why was I thinking that? She would never willingly betray me, she's being tricked by that imposter, just like the rest of them.'
'Yes, but she's known you for year, and knows you wouldn't freak out like that unless you had some reason, regardless if it makes sense to anypony else. Plus, Cadance is an alicorn. She has to live with her for eternity so of course she is going to take her side.
As this chain of thought went round and round through her head, she felt sorrow that her mentor wouldn't believe her.
'Hey, cheer up. All we have to do is find the real cadence, kill the imposter, and everything will go back to normal. Ok, maybe not EVERYTHING will go back to normal, but it will be ok. We can work with this. Plus, we're an alicorn now. She can't just ignore us this time.'
Realizing the logic behind the voices words, she exclaimed " Yeah, your right. Let's go find Cadance." As she headed out the door, she turned her head and called " Hey worm, what's your name?"
The worm looked at her with what looked like pride, and maybe a hint of satisfaction, and said " As I've said before ms Sparkle, my name does not matter. But if you feel the need to name me, call me W-1, or Lllw."
Maybe I will see you later Lliw." As she rushed out the door, she did not see what was happening behind her.
The worm grew legs, and it's head grew till it resembled that of an equine. Within a few minutes, a pony stood where the worm used to be. Speaking out to the air, it said " Syntheia, darkness has been revealed. I'm returning until time to harvest." With that, it willed itself out of the room.
Caverns, and party crashers.
As Twilight experimented with her new body, she found that several high level dark spells she earlier could not preform, she could now cast with ease. One such as turning into liquid shadow. She slithered her way into the library, and started to rip books off the shelves, using long, thick tendrils of dark magic. When she found a particular book, she sat In a quiet corner and began to read carefully, poring over the pages.
' So there's a huge series of Chrystal tunnels under the castle. I might as well start to look there for Cadance. Once I find her, i'll have proof that something is not right here, and the imposter can die.'
She put all the books on the shelves except that one. " I'll leave it as a clue for the others,the traitors." With that, she got a bookmark, and put the open book on that page. As she flowed out of the library and into the hall, she accidentally ran into a guard. Before he could make a sound, she covered him, and sapped his magic. In a soft voice, she said " I'm sorry about this, but i need more time."
As he fell to the floor, she quickly found a abandoned room, and locked it from the outside. She then melted the key, and threw it into a corner.
As she continued down the hallway, making a series of twists and turns, she pulled up her mental notes. ' The entrance should be right... Here!'
She pushed on one of the stones in front of her, and watched as the wall split apart. Giddely, she clapped her hooves, happy that the ancient map proved to still be accurate. She walked into the hole, and cast a heat vision spell on herself. After about an hour of walking, she saw a light orange shape behind a wall of crystals. Blasting it open, the smell of feeces immediately assaulted her senses. She shriveled her nose a bit, stepped forward and cleared the dust out of her eyes. She almost wished she hadn't.
The Cadance Twilight remembered had always been a bit pudgy, had a large smile, and a twinkle in her eyes. The pony she looked at now was as thin as a skeleton, and as dirty as one without a coffin, dust caking her coat. Her smile was replaced by a heavy frown, and her eyes were glassy, like she wasn't even there.
She carefully walked over to her side and whispered in her ear, " Cadance? It's me, Twilight. I'm here to bring you home."
With a smack of her lips, she tiredly looked up at Twilight and said " Twilight? Is it time for me to sit you already?"
With a pang of pain, she said " Yeah, but you seem really tired. Here, come lay on the couch." She stretched out a wing, and pulled Cadance onto her back. As Cadance fell back asleep, she muttered something about soft pillows. With that, Twilight teleported back to the entrance.
As she layed Cadance down on a bed in an empty room, she teleported to a set of double oak doors, and a large banner that said " Joy to the newly weds!"
She gave a smug grin, and thought ' Ok, let's see how badly i can crash the party.' After a second or two, she practically squealed. ' Idea!'
Celestia smiled down at her niece as she was about to say ' I do,' when she heard a loud scream come from the back of the room.
Black mist seemed to be floating out from under the oak doors, and spreading out across the floor. After a minute of this, it solidified into a mass of black tendrils that rose up, and began binding to each other like rope, forming the shape of a a large equine. When it could meet her eyes, it started to smooth out, starting to truly look like a living being. It's teeth were the first thing to reappear, a cruel laugh being cut by the razor sharp ends of them. It's wings and horn came next, looking like something that came from the inky depths of a horrible nightmare. The final thing that materialized was it's eyes, and those were the worst of all. They were purple, just like Twilights, but had a almost palpable anger behind them.
As soon as the monster had finished forming, it said " Hello everypony." It then picked up a bottle of champagne, and looked directly at the bride. " Hope i'm not interrupting something."
Author's Note
So, Twilight is pissed off. The next chapter will have plenty of Chrysalis beat down, but now I am going to work on THE CRUSHING MOON.
" Seize her! She must not disturb the wedding!"
As the guards surrounded dedicated the intruder, she chuckled and said " Boys, please. Don't poke a alicorn with sticks," With a pulse of magic, their Spears were torn from them and thrown on the ground, " Unless you wish to be burned."
Celestia gave a glance at her guards who stood down. " Who are you, and what do you want?"
The creature gave a laugh. " The Great and Mighty Celestia wants to know my name? I should feel honored, if you weren't a fool. As for what I want, I just want to make a point."
She Galloped over to Cadance and lit up her horn. As she cast the spell, Cadance writhed in pain and collapsed to the ground. Celestia screamed " Noo!" She charged at the intruder, but had her hooves taken out from under her.
She glanced up, expecting to see Cadance charbroiled, only to see a black insect where her niece was. ' What?"
" This, is what you've been protecting. I believe someone already called her out on this?" Celestia thought back to Twilight, and felt tears well up in her eyes. Shining Armour was shaking his head, like he was waking out of a bad dream.
" Huh? Is the reception over?" He looked down at the insect and jumped back. " What is that!?"
The insect groaned, and shakily got to her hooves. " It has a name you know." She raised her head, and winced. " It's Chrysalis. Queen Chrysalis." She looked over at the intruder, and said " Maybe I at least have the name of the one who did this to me?"
" Midnight." She then picked up Chrysalis, and threw her into a wall, sending ponies scattering. She broke the top of her champagne glass, and used it to stab her.
" Please, stop! We don't know where she has hidden Cadance!"
" I already found her and took her to a safe place." She turned her attention to chrysalis. " Now, you need to learn what happens when you mess with ponies I care about."
" Ponies you care about? But you aren't..." She gave a toothy smile. " Oh, i see what happened. Well well well, looks like little Twilight decided to grow up."
There were gasps of disbelief.
Rainbow Dash cried out " But, that can't be Twilight! She would never do something like this!"
Chrysalis coughed up green blood, and laughed. " What, like you would never betray her? Looks like you both crossed lines."
Midnight walked over and put a hoof on chrysalis's neck. " I will give you one chance to live. Leave, and never return.
" What, so we could go back to living in scorching caves? No, I would rather die before we do that!"
"So be it." A crunching noise echoed throughout the throne room.
Celestia shakily stood and said in a timid voice " Twilight? "
" It's Midnight." She turned to Celestia. " Midnight Sparkle is my name now."
The other elements bearers stood looking on in horror at the corpse of the former queen. " Twilight, why?" Said Fluttershy. " She didn't need to die."
" Oh come on Fluttershy!" She turned to face the group. " If I didn't deal with her today, she could have come back later on and tried to hurt us then, and if I imprisoned her, we run the chance of her getting free and coming back that way. This is more final. After all," She jerked her head towards the corpse. " No one can run from death."
Celestia walked towards her and said " Twi- Midnight Sparkle, as Princess of Equestria, I thank you, but now I must also ask you to give up your dark powers. Please."
" No way! This magic is the only thing I was able to use to make you listen to me, and you want me to give it up! No! You have to deal with me now. You can't just ignore me ever again. I won't let you!"
As they stood in front of the crowd, Celestia heard a ruffle of wings. " Excuse me," said an black bug, " but which one of you killed the Queen?"
Midnight looked at them and said " I did. Who might you be?"
" I am number two, the past queens advisor. I came in through the window." He pointed a hoof at the large open windows.
" So, why are you bugging me?"
" One, that pun was horrible, and two, according to ancient law set by the first queen, you are in charge now."
" Oh really?" She looked over at Celestia who was still looking guilty. A horrible smile filled her face. " Well, looks like ponyville is going to need a castle if I'm going to be a queen.
" Please Midnight, just come with me. Let's talk this out, and I'm sure we can-"
" Do what, convince me to not do this. No, I want this. I WANT this. And now, I'm going to have it. See you soon."
Midnight was covered in shadows as she and the changlings inside the room were teleported.
" Oh Faust, what have we done?"
As Celestia and Luna paced the floor, Shining Armor and the Element bearers worked on calming everyone done. " Shhhh, it's fine. It's all alright." When every pony had stopped screaming and were sitting in groups, they faced the sisters.
" What are we gonna do?" Asked Rarity. " She obviously does not want any of us around, and probably has taken over ponyville by now. I feel like any attempt we made right now would just instigate things."
Celestia gave a heavy sighed and stared at the ground. " For now, we must make sure there are no spies she may have left in our midst before we can start planning. And only then can we start trying to earn her forgiveness."
With heavy hearts, the girls nodded and walked amongst the other ponies, making sure no one was hurt and everyone was alright.
Celestia watched and rubbed her head with her hooves, a massive headache starting to form. ' Ok Celestia, what to do, what to do?' As she was thinking, a guard in gold armor came up and took off his helmet. " Your highness, I have a report on the Ponyville situation."
She nodded. " Report then. I need some kind of news, even if it's bad news."
" Its been over run by Twilight Sparkle and her horde, with any one who was able to get out has currently holed up in town hall as well as Sweet Apple acres. There is a couple of ponies are keeping them safe but we expect that they will be over run in a matter of a day if not hours." He paused. " They are also building fortifications and what seems like a castle in the middle of the town." He raised a hoof to his head. " Princess, what are your orders?"
She sighed heavily and said " Nothing for now. If we move too quickly we will run the risk of agitating her and with how unstable Twiloght is right now, i dont wanna take that chance. Order the guard to check for changlings among us, and do a internal sweep of the guard. I want no spies here to report to her."
He saluted once again and trotted off to carry out her orders. Turning to see Luna slowly come up to her she asked " How are Cadance and Shining Armor doing?"
" Not well I'm afraid. Cadance has locked herself in her room, screaming about how we are all Changling illusions and Shining Armor can't levitate a feather without a massive spike of pain."
She paused. " And Spike?"
" Curled up in a corner. He refuses to move and waves off any attempts to console him." Luna sighed. " Even at her darkest, I never thought that Sparkle would abandon her son."
Celestia trotted forward slightly, enough to where she could see Ponyville if she tried hard enough. " I do not believe Twilight is in full control, or in her right mind. The amount of dark magic surging through her veins should have killed her or turned her into some sort of foul demon, yet she hasn't changed into one." She hums to herself, trying to remember if something similar had happened in the past.
" What about Sombra sister?"
" No, his power was strong but he mainly used mind games and clever techniques, not just using a brute force method as Twilight did."
" So, sister, what is out plan now?"
" Make sure no changlings were left behind then try to get her to leave Ponyville peacefully. After that, try to be the mentor she used to think I was." She sighs and chuckles today. " I've bungled thus all up quite nicely, havn't I Luna?"
Luna trotted over and placed a leg on her withers. " It is not entirely your fault Tia, it's Chrysalis's fault for starting this whole issue in the first place." She started to all away. " Now come, we must do damage control before the lovely vultures we call nobles can twist this in their favor." She flapped her wings and took to the sky,heading to town square.
With a sway of her head, Celestia followed her, trusting the others to be able to take care of cleaning up.
Thorax groaned as his stomach rumbled. ' Maybe I should have waited till k could steal some rations BEFORE I decided to escape.' He swayed his head from side to side and saw a little puffy tail in some bushes. ' Well, it's going to taste nasty, but beggars can't be choosers, right?' He slowly walked over to the tail whispering " hey little buddy, I'm not gonna hurt you. I just wanna hug you a little. Bunnies like hugs, right?"
A foot suddenly launched into his face, knocking him into his back. " Oowwww! Get back here!" He chased after the bunny, hunger making him desperate.
He chased him through thorny bush and pony eating vine plants. ' Man, I really hope someone clears out those fly plants. They could have eaten me!' Just as he came into a clearing, he saw the bunny surrounded by birds and other critters, all with makeshift spears and weapons. He gulped and gave an awkward laugh, trying to back away. As he stepped away, he bumped into a furry mass, looking up to see a bear with its lips pulled back and teeth bared.
With a yelp, he was picked up and tied by the squirrels. With a nervous chuckle he said " Now guys, surely we can talk this out." The bear smacked his head and all he saw was stars.
Lemon heart was having a good day. She had just signed a deal with Bon-Bon to provide her some Lemon candies, her colt friend got a raise and her little filly was going on a field trip to canterlot today. ' Nothing can go wrong today!' The moment she thought those words however, a harsh buzzing noise filled her ears. She looked up and paled in fear and horror.
Filling the sky were bugs. But they weren't normal bugs, no. They looked like ponkes, if ponies had insect wings and we're riddled with holes. They descended upon the town and she saw several other ponies get picked up or tackled to the ground. She screamed and started to run with the few who weren't subdued.
One of the bugs flew at her but she picked up a chair with her magic and smashed it in the bugs face. It rubbed it's face and growled at her, spitting some gooey thing at her hooves. She panicked and threw another chair at it which it domed this time. Two more bugs landed next to her and surrounded her in a chrysalis made of the goo. Her final thoughts as she went unconscious were ' And today was going to be such a good day...'
Midnight grinned as she gazed over her new kingdom. " It's all mine now. It's mine." The advisor changling looked at her for a second then cautiously walked to her side. " My queen, we have most of the town under our control. Sweet Apple Acres is housing some escapees and the rest holed up In town hall and we are having some difficulty with a couple Griffin war veterans. Other than that, we own this village."
She nodded and looked back out. " we will deal with Sweet Apple Acres later. Take care of the town hall and set up tunnels for the ponies we captured. I want you to start harvesting their love and pass it out among the hive. I don't want starving soldiers as my army."
The advisor nodded and flew away to give orders.
She continued looking out with a toothy smile. " It's good to be queen." A soft voice whispered " This isn't right." She whipped her head around and looked for the voices owner before she realised it was hers. " You know this is wrong. These are our neighbors, our friends." She growled " We don't have anymore friends. We have servants now. Now, I don't know what you are, but is want you to be quiet."
It went silent for a moment before whispering " you aren't Twilight." " No, I am Midnight, queen of changlings, and you are just a memory." She sat back down and frowned.
A warrior by the name of nines was on patrol with his drone friend Thorax on the outside of ponyville. " This town seems like a good starting point, eh Thorax?" He remained silent, not answering his friend. " Thorax, you still aren't sad about the ponies are you? I mean, I know you don't like how things go around, but we have a new queen! And as a bonus, she's not making us bash our heads against a shield." He rubbed his head. " That would have hurt alot."
Thorax remained quiet. He gave a slight snarl. " Seriously Thorax, what's eating at you?"
" Have you ever wanted to leave the hive?"
" Never. I mean, Chrysalis was a tyrant, but she was still the queen, and you know what happens to dissenters. Even the ones who were able to escape usually died in a week. They just couldn't get enough love."
" But what if we worked with the ponies and became friends! You and I, we could work to help relations between our two races!"
He walked where he was in front of Thorax and put a hoof on his chest. " Thorax, forget about that idea! Let's just finish our patrol and go get some love rations, ok?"
Thorax nodded. " Ok Nines." Nines smiled and walked in front of him., not expecting to be hit in the head with a log. The last thing he heard was " I'm sorry Nines. I'll make it up to you later." Then everything faded to black.
Thorax dragged his unconscious friend into a bush and ran off, intent on making it all better.